Artist: Nikolin Bujari (Tirana / Albania)
Presented work: „Blood Feuds“ (2008)
Text by Adela Demetja
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The Kanun or the Kanuni i Lekë Dukagjinit (The Code of Lekë Dukagjini) is a compilation of laws developed by Lekë Dukagjini and used mostly in northern Albania and Kosovo since the 15th century. The code has been handed down orally through generations and it was first codified and written down in the 19th century by Shtjefën Gjeçov. The code is divided into sections of laws that are needed to govern marriage, birth, death, hospitality and inheritance, which have traditionally served as the foundation of self-government for northern Albania. The Kanun became a popular form of justice in a highly armed tribal society where man's honour was everything. In particular, the Kanun contains provisions for killings so that entire families are not totally annihilated. The following rule was established: Whoever kills will be killed. "Blood is paid for with blood". Whole families were involved in blood feuds that sometimes went on for generations.
Blood feuds and other ancient customs survived in the shadows for many centuries. Under forty years of communist regime deadly family feuds were rare in Albania. But since the collapse of communism in the 1990s there has been a revival of blood feuds. The law and order vacuum created by the collapse sent many Albanians back to the ancient customary laws of their tribal past and now nearly everyone has a gun.
According to the Committee of Nationwide Reconciliation, an Albanian non-government organization devoted to mediating peace between warring families, thousands of Albanian families are locked in cycles of tit-for-tat killings.. This is because the ancient social code, defines the family home as off-limits for revenge killings. The home is the only safe place for those under threat. So across Albania thousands of men and boys are cowering in their homes with enemy families prowling outside. Also of great concern is the fact that nowadays the blood feuds involve whole families – the immediate family of the killer as well as the extended family, even women, girls and little boys. As a result, hundreds of children across Albania are living virtually imprisoned in their homes – for fear of being killed in blood feuds. Many children have the misfortune to have been born into a family entangled in a blood feud, and it is impossible to describe how those isolated children feel and how they can develop. Because of this virtual imprisonment these children cannot attend school or be involved in any other activities outside of the home. The education ministry has set up programmes that provide books and teachers for children whose feuding families keep them locked in their homes for safety. If we still have the Kanun structure today, this means that there is a malfunction of the judicial structure and a lack of state control. The Albanian Penal Code did not contain any provisions that directly address blood feuds; only in 2008 the government amended the country’s criminal code to make blood feuds illegal and punishable.
“All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood”; but not in Albania.
Adela Demetja